Hornets Hype

Free! CP3 Posters for everyone tonight! (See left.) Clearly meant to be a depiction of what Chris Paul looks like shortly before devouring someone’s soul. And they’ve done a good job with it, too.

ESPN the Mag Hype for CP: This article just appeared on the front page of espn.com. Everyone wants to be friends with Chris Paul. It’s the cool thing to do. Except, where ya been lately on that whole yelling-at-Tyson thing?

What-EVER, Marty Burns: People who disrespect the CP3|MVP mission end up in a special place. It’s called the Shit List.

CrowdWatch: I think we’ve got another sellout for tonight. There were only 300 tickets left as of this morning.

Bonus Random Hype That Can’t Quite Be Categorized: Hilton Armstrong and Julian Wright go bowling. Why? How? No one knows. I love you, internets.

And remember to smile at the game, because you’re on TV!

I myself have whoooo-ed in this same tunnel.

Sellout of 17,931. The hype is blaaaaazzzzzing. The arena was rocking. The sun went down Wednesday night.

Seriously, though. If that Tyson dunk is not the #1 on every highlight show, I will… well, never mind what I will do. He was like, “Hey, Dwight. WHAT-EV. I don’t need a cape to fly.”

Hornets 120, Suns 103. Hornets sweep the season series with the Suns. I debut a new homemade T-shirt. (But. I go back to the TC6 jersey on Friday just AS A TRIBUTE to the much-improved play this evening. Fierce. Does he read the blogs and forums?) We witness the return of the dominant third quarter. There is free beer.

And, everybody together now: What’s the only beer better than a dollar beer?

FREE BEER!

T.P. Watchdog: Hornets have a box stickied at the top of nola.com currently, where the main story usually is. I have never seen that.

• Attendance was 11,289.
• The Hornets lost to the Wizards.
• The Hornets are on a three game losing streak.

There is no hype. There is negative hype.

I’d skip right on over to here for Hornets.com coverage of the All Star Weekend, which is right now featuring All Star Diaries from David West and Peja Stojakovic (man, despite this blog’s families having originated in Croatia and Poland, that one still gives me pause… and believe me when I say, we’ve got enough Eastern European extraneous letters around this here apartment to float alphabet soup).

I thought this article was going to be the same old crap, but it ends on an up note and for that I respect them.

T.P. Watchdog Effort: Seriously respectable sports section today. CP3’s picture was in it no less than four times. I think only three pages didn’t have Hornets content. Of course, much of it was All Star content, but they did a good job with the Hornets-oriented All Star articles. T.P. Watchdog… keeping the media responsible & buzz-friendly since 2007.

Went to Hornets night at the Jam Session on Wednesday. If I had kids or was the kind of person who doesn’t mind waiting in lines to participate in contests and activities (I’m not), it would have been more fun. But the store rocked. Picked up two T-shirts, the mug (with the crawfish All Star logo!), and the bead (indecent to live in New Orleans and pay for a bead, let alone $8 for a bead, but come on… All Star bead!) I was disappointed you couldn’t buy a West West jersey in small sizes. In fact, they should have had an altogether better selection of stuff for the Hornets all stars. That’s what the people were there for. Give the people what they want!

All Star coverage on ESPN right now is mildly hilarious. CP3 calling Deion Sanders old, a chef from Galatoire’s cooking stuff up on the spot, and Amare Stoudamire is currently getting his tarot cards read. You should turn it on.

This blog has tickets to the Rookie Game, the Skills Competition, and the All Star Game on Sunday night. So watch for updates on famous people sightings! (But don’t get your hopes up. I am notoriously bad at spotting famous people. I once poured water for Peyton Manning without looking up under the baseball cap, no joke.)

This was one of the better early crowds I’ve seen this season. I attribute this to the Pre-Game Buzzfest outside the arena, which was helped out by the solidly temperate weather. If you haven’t been to a Buzzfest, you should. Dollar beers! The next one is scheduled for Friday, February 22nd, and the party starts rolling at 5:30.

Alternatively, you could buy season tickets for next year. Because that nets you free beers. And we all know the only beer better than a dollar beer is a free beer.

We hung our “THE BACK ROW BELIEVES” banner in its usual spot, but felt weird about it when we realized our fellow season ticket holder neighbors had been replaced tonight by a row of strangers. Well, guys, we believe, and since you’re sitting here, you’re gonna have to by default.

Chris Paul and David West did the intro for the game. Hilarious. CP thanked the fans for their support and said what an honor it is to be in the All Star Game (slightly disingenuous since they weren’t voted in, but I bet half the people in the crowd didn’t know the difference). Then he goes, “I’m sure D West wants to say something to y’all,” and holds out the mike, cracking up because he knows full well D West is freaked out by the idea of saying something to the crowd and is going nowhere near that mike. He shakes his head and throws a salute instead. Classic.

Hello, makeover! The arena is now sporting snazzy signs over every vendor. Signs with cute New Orleans-y names. Clearly this is being added to spice up the arena for the upcoming All Star Game. I hope we get to keep the upgrades when the NBA leaves. The concourse also now sports a couple of much nicer-looking bars.

The Hornets looked a bit lax after pulling out to an early 14-point lead. Playing without Tyson Chandler and Morris Peterson, they still never looked like they weren’t in control of the game. Final score Hornets 112, Grizzlies 99.

HypeMeter: As we speak, the headline on CNN/SI is “All That Buzz,” with a giant photo of Angry David West (might actually be slightly scarier than Angry Chris Paul, due to the size factor).

T.P. Watchdog: Times Picayune Sunday print edition has the better part of 5 pages devoted to the Hornets/All Star Game. Right on. Good job, friends. (See, I can bestow praise where praise is due.)

And one final note.

This was the first sellout of 2008. I like to think of it as the first sellout of the new era. I see a distinct, marked difference starting with the last three crowds. This dates back to the Spurs win, which I believe was the start of something special. If you were there at the Denver game the Monday after… you know you thought, “Wow.” I hope in the future we will be able to point to that game and say, “That’s when it started. And we never looked back.” I hope the hype is rolling, rolling like the Hornets are rolling and can’t be stopped. I hope the word spreads, that there is something happening with this team and this season that you don’t want to miss.

I hope.

And what keeps me hoping is this: Last night we saw New Orleans Arena sell out. And it wasn’t Kobe, it wasn’t LeBron. The Memphis Grizzlies? Please. The Grizzlies got nothing.

17, 231 people came last night to see the Hornets.

San Jose Mercury News: Even Warriors’ Davis fails to draw fans in New Orleans

Blaaaahhhh, blah, blah… I’m sorry, was that guy talking?

My mistake. It must have been the wind rustling through the Uptown trees…

At the game last night. Too bad they had to watch our streak end. That number is sort of surprising to me because I thought we had about as many as we had Monday night. Everything was pretty much packed except the upper corners. But for a Mardi Gras game I guess it was all right. I just keep waiting for that first elusive sellout that will really cement the Hornets’ growing awesomeness. This wasn’t it, but there’s still time.

Oh, and people need to stop being all New Orleanian and get there on time. The arena didn’t fill up till halftime. I mean, if people want to waste their money, then I guess that’s their prerogative, but for once it would be nice to be able to show the team our (loud!) appreciation right from the intro. It’s a fun intro, people! There’s Kanye, and low fives, and everyone holds hands and has love! Come on.

About 2/3 of the way through the game I started cringing every time the crowd booed Baron Davis, because I got the distinct feeling it was just making things worse. He would just nail a 3 pointer every time we did it. At that point, when the game was still really close, I thought it might have been better to rock the place with a positive cheer. (MVP! MVP!)

All Star reserves are announced today. Hopefully the Hornets will get a second player besides CP3.

Today, in the T-P. This is huge buzz (ha ha). Chris Rose is a guy who seems to have his finger on the pulse of the New Orleans metro area. Especially since his Katrina columns, people go out of their way to read him. And, more importantly, they listen to what he’s saying. And today he says to get on board with the Hornets. What a perfect way to go into tonight’s game.

This site, of course, is not satisfied with mere hype. This site loves the vibe that’s been happening this week. But we’ve got to move on up. Higher and higher. Bigger and bigger.

This site will not rest until it sees us on the front page of the Times Picayune and the sports section, the morning after a standing room only sellout game that we won, after driving to work on a highway dotted with Hornets flags, listening to the morning DJs talk about the Hornets on the radio.

But you have to admit things are picking up.